85% is a unicorn – on predictions in the National Hockey League postseason

On February 20, the National Hockey League announced a partnership with software company SAP. The alliance’s primary purpose was to bring a new enhanced stats section to NHL.com, built in the shadows of popular analytics sites like war-on-ice and the now dormant extra-skater.

It was, it seemed, a partial admission from the league that it’s best metrics were hosted elsewhere.

“The stats landscape in the NHL is kind of all over the place,” suggested Chris Foster, Director of the NHL’s Digital Business Development, at the time. “One of the goals is to make sure that all of the tools that fans need are on NHL.com.”

One tool presented in February was SAP’s Matchup Analysis, designed to predict the league’s postseason play. The tool claimed 85% accuracy, which Yahoo’s Puck Daddy boasted was good enough to make “TV executives nervous and sports [bettors] rather happy.”